During operation, the reciprocating piston causes oscillations in the compression unit. It is desired to decouple these oscillations from the housing in order to keep the noise generation outside the housing small.
Therefore, it is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,881,042 B2 to support the compression unit of a linear compressor on the bottom of the housing via several helical springs. The helical springs cause a decoupling with regard to oscillations between the compression unit and the housing, so that outside the housing the oscillations are detectable only to a very limited extent.
However, such helical springs require relatively much space between the housing and the compression unit, so that dimensions of the housing will inevitably be increased. When such a compressor is used as refrigerant compressor in a domestic refrigeration appliance, for example a refrigerator or a freezer, the space required for the housing will no longer be available volume for storing goods to be cooled. Further, the helical springs have the disadvantage that perpendicular to their screw axis they can only provide a relatively poor damping. This, however, is exactly the direction, in which the reciprocating piston causes oscillations.